1.3 Stakeholders, pathways and stages

Technology transfer results from actions taken by various stakeholders. Key stakeholders
include developers, owners, suppliers, buyers, recipients and users of technology
such as private firms, state enterprises, and individual consumers, financiers
and donors, governments, international institutions, NGOs and community groups.
Some technology is transferred directly between government agencies or wholly
within vertically integrated firms, but increasingly technology flows depend also
on the co-ordination of multiple organisations such as networks of information
service providers, business consultants and financial firms. Although stakeholders
play different roles there is a need for partnerships among stakeholders to create
successful transfers. Governments can facilitate such partnerships. The rate of
technology transfer is affected both by motivations that induce more rapid adoption
of new techniques and by barriers that impede such transfers. Both types of factors
can be influenced by policy (see Table TS 1).

The theme of technology transfer is highly interdisciplinary and has been approached
from a variety of perspectives, including business, law, finance, microeconomics,
international trade, international political economy, environment, geography,
anthropology, education, communication, and labour studies. Although there are
numerous frameworks and models put forth to cover different aspects of technology
transfer, there are no corresponding overarching theories. However, the literature
reveals a large number of pathways through which stakeholders can interact to
transfer technologies. They vary depending on sectors, country circumstances
and type of technology. Pathways may be different for "close to market"
technologies and for technology innovations still in the development phase.
The role of stakeholders is dependent on the pathway followed. Common pathways
include government assistance programmes, direct purchases, trade, licensing,
foreign direct investment, joint ventures, co-operative research arrangements
and co-production agreements, education and training, and government direct
investment.

While technology transfer processes can be complex and intertwined certain
stages can be identified. These may include the identification of needs, choice
of technology, assessment of conditions of transfer, agreement and implementation.
Evaluation and adjustment to local conditions, and replication are other important
stages. In order to evaluate whether technology transfer can be considered effective,
different criteria can be applied. The criteria can be grouped into four categories,
namely, (1) greenhouse gas (GHG) and environmentally related; (ii) economic
and socially related; (iii) administrative, institutional and politically related;
and (iv) process-related.

Table TS1 Principal stakeholders and
their decisions or policies in technology transfer